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Thread: XP SP2 to be released, pirates excluded

  1. #1

    XP SP2 to be released, pirates excluded

    I found this kinda funny. They are going to try and prevent pirates from having access to the latest service pack. Any how are they doing this, well that's easy...

    Microsoft has worked out the 20 most pirated product IDs and SP2 will not install and run on any copy of XP bearing one of those numbers.
    This will certainly have some effect on a large number of people, but if they are putting CD's out there, why is it that they think pirates won't get the latest of the service packs through some other method?

    Original article can be found here.

    Any how, thought you all might enjoy.
    Regards.
    [original post here]

  2. #2
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hmmm,

    I seem to recall that originally M$ were not going to bother?

    It is a bit of a catch 22 situation as unpatched boxes are a major vector for malware?

    I wonder how long it will be before you start seeing "cracked" SP2, or at least a crack for the security, as 80Mb is a bit steep for dial-up And, I suppose, pirate CDs.

    I presume that the latest copies of XP will contain the SP2 amendments so newer pirate versions will have them in as well. If someone has bought a pirate version in the first place it seems pretty certain that they will go and buy another one if they want the "upgrade"

    Has anyone any idea of the economics of it, like how much do pirate versions of XP sell for?

    Cheers

  3. #3
    Senior Member mungyun's Avatar
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    I was in mexico when XP first came out, and you could go out to a lot of stores and buy a pirated copy for about 20 dollars. Box and instructions included. Just the disc was a copy.
    Would it be against the law for M$ to purposely make a pirated version that could send info back to their HQ or wherever?
    I believe in making the world safe for our children, but not our children’s children, because I don’t think children should be having sex. -- Jack Handey

  4. #4
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Thanks mungyun, that answers my question, it would still be far cheaper to buy a pirate copy even if you then had to buy another one, than to buy the real thing (about £128 or $225US over here).

    I don't know about legality as that varies from country to country. If M$ actually made it, it would not be "piracy" in Europe, just "differential pricing". I don't think that M$ would do it anyway. If someone has bought pirated software you have already lost the money?

    I think that M$ are more concerned with stopping the bulk counterfeiters. If you force someone into having to buy a second pirate copy you make them unhappy with the counterfeit product ? but from what you tell me it is still a massive saving.

    Cheers

  5. #5
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    Pirate prices are different everywhere... My cousin lived in Singapore for a year and a half, and he said there were people all over the place selling pirated everything, and some places would have things like windows for $100 and some would have it for like $10... He said most places moved almost weekly to new locations because Singapore is one place they are actually attempting to stop the copyright infringement... He got to watch one group of them get busted in a cafe... He was sitting on the other side of the cafe watching like 7 of them getting taken down in cuffs and all... Then he saw it on the news that night... The police on the news said they confiscated like $10,000 worth of material...

  6. #6
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    in my eyes, buying pirated software is a little extreme, all you are really doing is paying less and getting less....there are so many places where you can get pirated copy of XP for free, the easiest way i can think of is.....well, the interenet for one.....a friend, so many places where software can be "obtained" for free.

    i can't even imagine a place where people actually make money off of pirated software....especially when you can so easily find places to download it for free!

    as far as SP2 goes, if they are only disallowing 20 some-odd keys from installing it, then that is quite a step down from what i read a couple months ago. i had read that you couldn't even download it unless you had a valid cdkey. which would at first be a bit difficult for the "pirates" who don't have valid cdkeys, but i'm sure that a cracked version of SP2 would soon follow the official release.

    -D

  7. #7
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Dustinov,

    Be realistic, would you try to download XP over a 56.6 dial-up

    In some countries internet connection is very expensive. In others, your local phone calls are not free. At the kind of rates you get on dial-up here, that is going to take about 4 hours. Also not everyone has a CD burner, and you need it on CD in case you have to format and re-install.

    Also, the resale value of a PC goes down if you don't have at least a manufacturer's recovery disc.

    I think that it is significant that the major markets for pirate software are those where incomes are low.

    Also if you go to a Warez site you are quite likely to get a lot more than a cracked version of your software

    What I am saying is that what we can do in Europe and North America doesn't always make sense in other parts of the world?

    I would say that if there wasn't a market for it, it wouldn't be there? I will state categorically that I have not seen a pirate OS on sale in the UK.............plenty of music CDs and DVDs because there is a market for those.

    Just a few thoughts

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    I agree with you entirely Nihil. In most parts of Asia, internet is VERY expensive, and websites are VERY controlled in places such as china or Taiwan. Pretty much all Asian governments have complete control over what websites are accessible. This means the Chinese can usually not download that pirated version of windows, but they can buy a pirated version easy. Just a walk down the street. And the government there does next to nothing to stop it.

    Also, Windows is more expensive over in Asia than it is here. Think about how much it costs to ship all those discs over there, then add the heavy taxes China adds to legal software...

    Availabilty is also a large factor. When you don't own a car and cannot afford public transportation, you walk or ride a bike everywhere. This is what the majority of Chinese people do. When the nearest place you can legally purchase software is all the way accross the city in the rich part of town, will you spend all that extra time doing that when you can buy it locally, for cheaper, and possibly not even know it's pirated? (that is what a lot of them are doing now, they make them look authentic, so people that DON'T want to pirate still get jipped... The pirates sell both types, the burned cd look and the authentic, they charge more for the authentic looking one. Hence, they make more money off the people who try to do the right thing)

    Just some more thoughts about piracy.

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    I can tell you that SP2 RC2, is not incompatible with a pirated version of Windows XP Professional.
    You just gotta have a bit of know-how, and an interesting ZIP I found amongst the warez/cracks sites.

    A_T

    [edit]
    I forgot to mention...SP2 RC2 has been provided on CD at an MS Security Summit in my area, if you went, you got a 180 day trial of WinXP Home and SP2 RC2 on a seperate CD. Both can, and have been pirated, cracked, and adapted for your disposal.
    [/edit]
    Geek isn't just a four-letter word; it's a six-figure income.

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    Even in some places in the UK their are places to buy pirated software very easily. A certain stall at the local weekly market springs to mind.
    While this method will stop a lot of people it will not stop stop the real pirates. Its more aimed at the casual user thats used a mates copy who wouldn`t know where to start when it came to getting around something like that.
    The problem is though they are only excluding 20 keys, their is a lot more available on the internet and i`ve seen a program before that can change the key without re-installing so it seems like that with a bit of time anyone could install SP2.

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